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What is the structure of the working day?
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Morning registration is by 8:50 am . There are 5 lessons each morning, with a 20-minute break after the first 3. Lunch-break is 12.35 pm – 2.00 pm to allow plenty of time for extra-curricular activities. School ends at 4.00 pm. Coaches leave at 4.20 pm.
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| When does the School open and close? |
At 6.00 am and 10.00 pm, usually! However, we like boys to arrive from 8.00 am (when breakfast is available) and, after school they can work in the Library under supervision until 5.00 pm Boys can stay at school until they are collected.
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| Is there Saturday school? |
No lessons. On a typical Saturday there could be over 400 boys and 40 staff involved in sport, music, drama, chess, all voluntary.
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| How do boys get to school? |
Some walk and many cycle. Many use the 111, R70 or 285 buses, all of which stop outside school or very close to it. Some come by train to Hampton station on the Waterloo-Shepperton line. There are coaches jointly with LEH and about 1000 pupils from the two schools use these. The catchment area is quite large - a coach list is available. Our Coach Co-ordinator now runs the coach system and has always managed to place everyone wanting a seat. |
| How are the boys organised? |
The average form size from First to Fifth Years is 23, and actual class size in some subjects can be less. In the Sixth Form, the Forms or Tutor Groups can be in single figures. Each Form has a Form Tutor who stays with them, at GCSE and A level, for two years if possible. Each form in the first three years has a volunteer Sixth Formers who acts as a Form Mentor to the boys in the form. The Form Tutors work as a team with the Assistant Heads of Year and Head of Year and meet often to discuss the progress of each boy and the year group as a whole. |
| What parents’ evenings and reports are there? |
There are two major written reports a year, with regular grade cards for effort and academic performance in between. There is at least one full parents’ evening for each year group with several in key years coming up to subject options. There are voluntary extra parents’ evenings for pastoral, careers and university matters. |
| How do you teach science? |
All the three sciences are taught as the separate subjects of Biology, Chemistry and Physics by a graduate teacher in dedicated facilities. |
| What about computers? |
There are 11 ICT suites within the School. Five are all-purpose suites with full network and Internet facilities for all students to access. Four are specialist ICT suites: a Science ICT suite which is fully networked and is used for data logging and other Science-based activities, a new Design Technology ICT suite which is used for CAD/CAM, and three iMAC suites in Art and Music Technology. The latter is specially adapted for recording, editing and producing music. The majority of classrooms are now fitted with data projectors to complement the wireless-enabled laptops all staff use and this provision will soon be extended through the School. All students undertake a range of vocational ICT qualifications. Lower School boys follow the ‘New CLAIT’ course and Third and Fourth Year students take the European Computer Driving Licence. |
| What languages do you teach? |
The Modern Languages are French, German, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin. Any one of the first three can be chosen as the first language studied, with the opportunity to start a second (and third) language in the Third Form. Top sets can take their first language at GCSE early and AS in the Fifth Form. All First and Second Formers take Latin, which supports English and Modern Languages by teaching precision and grammar. Boys in the First Year take a short course in Mandarin. |
| Is there setting? |
There is no setting in the First Year. There is some setting of Modern Languages from the Second Year and of Mathematics from the Third Year: in these two subjects the top sets take GCSE a year early and then move to AS level or similar work in the Fifth Year. Science is partially set for GCSE. There is no other setting as the boys are generally from a reasonably narrow ability band and opportunities for differentiation, each boy working to his best with none marking time or held back, are offered within the class. |
| How many GCSEs and A levels? |
Full details are in the Prospectus. Boys study ten subjects to GCSE or IGCSE, and anything from four to even seven subjects at AS/A level according to their own ability and wishes. |
| What about careers and university advice? |
This is excellent, with full careers aptitude diagnosis for each boy. There is a well-stocked Careers Library. Over 80% of leavers get their first choice university and course. Virtually all go to a good university on leaving school or after a GAP year. For further details of leavers' destinations >> click here |
| Do you have to play a particular sport? |
All boys choose the sport they wish to play. In the First Year, they can pick football or rugby. From the Third Year, they can row, which they do all year round. Summer games include cricket, tennis and athletics. There are many other activities available, such as golf, real tennis, squash, cross-country, basketball, table tennis, badminton, swimming, fencing, sailing, rock climbing etc. |
| Is it sport for all or is sport elitist? |
The top teams are all very good indeed and play the best opposition. There is sport for all: for example Hampton fielded 26 soccer teams last year. |
| What is discipline like? |
Based on common sense and reasonably relaxed and friendly, because the working of the school and the atmosphere in it is built on tolerance and mutual respect. Poor behaviour of any kind, especially any form of intentional or thoughtless bullying, is rare, deplored and treated very firmly and the boy helped to improve. Relations between boys and staff are excellent. There is a sense of shared and common purpose at Hampton. |
| How easy is it to see a teacher ? |
Very easy. Simply telephone, email or write, probably to the Form Tutor or Head of Year, to have a discussion or make an appointment. |
| If you have entries at 11+ at 13+, how do they integrate? |
At the start of the Third Year the forms are re-organised into completely new groupings of both continuing and new pupils. All new boys can express a preference if they wish to be with a particular friend. |
| Hampton is so big. Do boys get lost there? Do they settle quickly? |
It feels like a small school. There are just over 10 pupils per teacher. There is a sympathetic and comprehensive induction programme and each boy is given The Hampton School Survival Guide, written partly by recent new boys. All new First Years go for two days at no extra cost to the Avon Tyrrell centre in the New Forest as part of their induction. All the Third Years have a team-building day shortly after the new boys arrive. Boys feel welcome: there will be many staff wanting to encourage them and to get them to develop their talents across the full range of activities. It is easy to make friends here. A boy can always find someone to talk to: the Mentor , his Form Tutor, his Head of Year, or if needed one of the school counselling team. |
| Do boys ever meet girls? |
We are not a co-ed school, but close links with LEH perhaps offer the best of both worlds. The fence between the two schools offers a meeting place, as do the buses and jointly run school coaches. The CCF (Combined Cadet Force), Service Volunteers and Millennium Boat House are run jointly. A Level Theatre Studies is taught together. Sixth Formers have mutual lunchtime visiting rights. A great deal of drama and music is done co-operatively. |
| Are boys praised for their good work and behaviour? |
Yes. Merits are awarded to pupils in all year groups for excellent work and/or effort demonstrated across all subjects and co-curricular activities. Once a pupil has achieved 10 Merits, he receives a certificate from his Head of Year. Once a certain number of Merits has been received, the pupil takes his certificate to the Headmaster for signing. There are prizes for the most Merits awarded each year. Heads of Year and Form Tutors contact parents if they are concerned about a boy’s progress and they also write and tell them if they are particularly pleased with a boy’s work or progress. |
| What plans are there for the future? |
Our ethos and atmosphere are very precious and we do not want to become a “hothouse”. We have always taken boys from a very wide variety of schools and we want this to continue. The plan is simply to try to raise standards academically and all round and make the school and its facilities better and better each year without changing its character. We have recently built the Millennium Boathouse, jointly with LEH, and completed a huge new teaching block and a large pavilion complex. In September 2004 excellent new facilities for English and Design & Technology were completed. A new Sixth Form Social Centre also opened. In September 2009 a large Performing Arts Centre opened to celebrate the 450th Anniversary. HRH Prince Edward laid the foundation stone of the building in Spring 2007 and the Centre was officially opened by Dr Vincent Cable MP on 28 September 2009. |
| And the food? |
It is excellent! Ask any pupil (or member of staff). |
| How easy is it to get in? |
It is difficult to say. It depends on whether the boy is right for Hampton and, more importantly, whether Hampton is right for the boy. Boys from about 100 schools sit the 11+-entrance examination in the January prior to the September of entry. Some sit the 10+ examination a year ahead. For 13+ entry, boys from Prep Schools sit a pre-test in the September two years ahead and then take Common Entrance or Scholarship in the summer before the September of entry. |
| What about scholarships and bursaries? |
There are academic, all-rounder, art, choral and music awards; sport may be offered for the all-rounder award. Full details are all set out in the Parents Guide. Candidates for the all-rounder will need to show prowess at some of music, drama, art and/or sports, at which they will be assessed at Hampton on the dates given in the Parents Guide, if they have shown sufficient merit in the entrance exam. A limited number of Bursaries may be available for able boys, irrespective of whether they have won another award, whose parents could not otherwise afford full fees. Details are in the Parents’ Guide and the Bursar will see parents to discuss this immediately after the entrance examination. |
| When do I know whether my son has a place? |
For those sitting the 11+ and 10+ examinations in early January, we inform parents by letter in late February. For 13+ candidates entry is by pre-test and Scholarship or Common Entrance: see the Parents Guide for details. For boys in other age groups tested during the year by special arrangement, we notify as soon as we can. Places into the Sixth Form are offered on the basis of GCSE results and confirmed as soon as we know these results. |